The icemen stayeth

Local company still provides necessary staple

I n the early 20th century, well before the advent of refrigerators and home ice makers, "there were ice companies in every city and town," said Scott Memhard, owner of Cape Pond Ice Co.

In those days, ice was cut from lakes and ponds, stored in woodsheds with a covering of sawdust or salt hay, and delivered to homes and businesses, where food was kept cool in ice boxes.

Over the years, refrigeration and consolidations have cut deeply into the ice business, leaving only a few major ice dealers in this state. The survivors are mostly family-owned enterprises, said Memhard, whose 160-year-old Gloucester-based company also has outlets in Lawrence and Peabody.

In the City Weekly circulation area, only one ice manufacturer remains: Brookline Ice Co., says Alice Marie Signore, the company's treasurer and spokeswoman. And though the Brookline Village company has adapted over the decades, even branching into ice sculpture, it remains a family operation.

Alice's husband, Mario, 61, and his father, Gus, 83, are the owners. "During the peak season, Gus is still out there, delivering ice," she said. A hopeful sign for the company's future, she added, is that a daughter in her 30s, Jennifer Signore Venis of Newton, is now thoroughly involved in the business.

The firm was incorporated in 1926 and run for many years by Gus's father, Marianno, who emigrated from Italy around 1912. He died in 1959.

"At first, Marianno peddled fruits and vegetables," Alice Signore said during an interview in the company's cramped 7,000-square-foot plant off Brookline Avenue. "Then he got into selling and delivering ice, some of it cut from Jamaica Pond and Hammond Pond, and selling coal as well. For a while, more than 50 years ago, he even had a thriving appliance business. He put the company on a solid footing."

Today, Brookline Ice, which has 35 employees and 20 delivery trucks, continues to be profitable, Signore said, adding that revenues last year were more than $4 million.

The company has several hundred wholesale accounts, including the Red Sox concessions, but about 60 percent of the revenue comes from countless retail customers, many of them walk-ins, she said.

A longtime wholesale customer is Gordon's Fine Wines & Liquors of Waltham, which buys several hundred bags a week, said owner Rick Gordon. "Brookline Ice understands the business and is easy to work with because of its superb service," he said.

The company also has established itself as a Brookline institution. It's one of the town's "longest-running businesses," said Robert L. Allen, a lawyer and selectman. "And for years, they've had to do more with less space," said Allen, referring to urban renewal efforts that forced the company to relocate in 1980 from Pearl Street, also in Brookline Village, to Brookline Avenue.

Much more space is in the offing, but it means the company's name will no longer reflect its location.

A multimillion-dollar plant is expected to be up and running by next June on a site off Hampden Street in Roxbury, Alice Signore said. "That's where we will do most of the manufacturing."

The new plant initially will be able to produce 200 tons of ice a day, she said, about four times the current volume. It's a completely automated process that starts with water being pumped into refrigerated coils. After the ice falls off the plates, Mario Signore explained, it's crushed, dried, screened for chips, and put in bags.

Much of the ice that is made is stored for later use, the Signores said.

Brookline Ice's carving began in 1960s, when the company began making ice sculptures year-round.

"We created a demand for this business," said Mario Signore, adding that over the years, huge sculptures have been turned out for First Night celebrations in Boston and for public and private parties.

One of the most memorable, he said, was an elephant sculpture - "and it was the size of an elephant" - made to commemorate the opening of a gymnasium at Tufts University in Medford.

Last year, there were 720 sculpture set-ups, he said, and typically it takes three days to produce a finished product. The artisans are Brookline Ice employees Eric Fontecchio and Alfred Georgs. Often working from photographs or illustrations, the sculptors use "drills, chisels, routers, hack saws, and, of course, ice picks," to make their creations, said Alice Signore.

Depending on the size, prices can range from $275 to more than $5,000.

The ice for the sculptures comes from Cape Pond Ice, which provides 335-pound blocks of its so-called crystal-clear ice, said Memhard. "We can make 1,800 of these blocks a day," he said.

For the overall business, Brookline Ice is reassured by the knowledge that at one time or another, "people will always need additional ice," said Alice Signore. "That can be for spur-of-the-moment parties or for very unusual uses. For example, on really hot days, some people want to use bags of snow ice to cool their swimming pools."

Rising costs of electricity and fuel are worrisome, she admitted, "but when temperatures and humidity levels are also rising, as they are now, sales soar."